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National Book Award finalists include Junot Diaz, Anthony Shadid

The National Book Foundationannounced the finalists for the National Book Awards on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" show Wednesday.

Junot Diaz, who was recently named a MacArthur “Genius” Fellow, is among the fiction finalists for his short-story collection, “This Is How You Lose Her.”

Two other fiction finalists -- Ben Fountain’s “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk” and “The Yellow Birds” by Kevin Powers -- deal with America’s long military engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

On a sad note, the nonfiction finalists include Anthony Shadid’s “House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East.” The New York Times journalist died earlier this year while covering the conflicts in the Middle East.

Also among those in the running are Katherine Boo for her book about an impoverished community in India, “Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity.”

The only Angeleno in the bunch is Carrie Arcos, whose novel “Out of Reach” -- which officially hits bookstore shelves next week -- is in among the finalists for young people's literature.

Poetry finalist Susan Wheeler is a former Los Angeles Times Book Prize finalist, while poetry finalist Alan Shapiro is a former L.A. Times Book Prize winner.

The National Book Awards are scheduled to be presented at a gala celebration in New York on Nov. 14. The complete finalist list is below.

“Bomb: The Race to Build-and Steal-the World’s Most Dangerous Weapon” by Steve Sheinkin

[For the record, 4:50 p.m. Oct. 10: An earlier version of this post said Anthony Shadid was killed while covering events in the Middle East. He was there reporting when he suffered a severe asthma attack and died.